Transcript

00:00:02

>> Silicon Valley, out to save the world. So it wants you to eat this plant based burger, born in the lab of impossible foods. It sizzles and even bleeds like real meat. But it won't hurt the planet the way our big cattle industry does today, gobbling up water and land and contributing to greenhouse gases.

00:00:20

It's a challenges many tech companies, and even some in the meat industry, are taking on. Memphis Meat grows meatballs from cow cells at over a $1,000 a pop. Beyond Meat has a GMO and soy free patty already in some Whole Foods stores, using beet root and other veggies.

00:00:36

But Impossible Foods believes it's found the recipe to rival normal beef patties in price in the near future. I'm Reuters Jane Lanhee Lee here in Redwood City in the Silicon Valley. The key ingredient for making this burger taste like meat is called heme, it's what makes the blood red in normal meat you eat, and you can find it in the roots of all plants.

00:00:59

But here, they've engineered a yeast to be able to produce it in bulk.>> Genetically modified yeast? The yeast is not in the burger, the byproduct heme is, and it's genetically identical to heme in the plants, says CEO Pat Brown. And he's proud of the process.>> We have from the get-go been completely transparent about where all our ingredients come from.

00:01:22

>> The company rolled out its burgers this summer in New York's trendy Momofuku Restaurant for $12 with fries. This week, three more restaurant in California start putting it on the menu, including Jardinière by chef Traci Des Jardins.. So now the taste test. That's a really good burger, and it tastes like meat.

00:01:41

Impossible Food says it's not targeting vegetarians but meat lovers. And eating one of these instead of a real meat burger is the equivalent of saving greenhouse gases from driving 18 miles in an average American car and water from a 10 minute shower. To be clear, a burger is still a burger when it comes to watching your waistline.